What happens when the thing you love, the thing you are most passionate about, becomes all that you are? Director Shea Sizemore‘s A Chess Player aims to examine what happens when your dream consumes you, leaving only that dream.

Sizemore’s short film will span 50 years and follow Tony, a man who discovers his love for the game of Chess and builds his entire life on it, only to fall from its graces in surprising and tragic ways. Think Brooklyn Castle meets Fight Club: underground basement tournaments, cigarette smoke fills the air as bare lightbulbs hover above a shifting crowd of onlookers.

The spectators watch with excitement, shouting and making bets, passing money as two people play against the clock and themselves. Sounds pretty bad-ass, right?

Shea Sizemore needs YOUR help to make this short film a reality, however. With only 19 days remaining, Shea has raised $1,910 of his $7,500 goal on Kickstarter. But enough of me blabbering on, I’ll let Shea tell you all about it…